- Brandon McIlwain - game ball goes to McIlwain. The crafty runner, has video game acceleration, and that pass was on a rope (where did that come from?)- Cal Defense - is this the best tackling team we've had in 10 years? (when a player is in position, they make the open field tackle)- The D Line was a worry of mine entering the year, and it still can be a concern, but the front four ton of pressure on the QB in the fourth quarter when we knew they had to throw.- Weaver OMG!- Most spectacle play on offense/special teams - Ashtyn Davis showing his full speed high hurdle form- Most spectaclplay on defense - Ashtyn Davis with the monster hit- Cal coaches - despite the opinions of some, I think we have a very good coaching staff, including OC who is innovative, and gutty- Our kickoffs - most sail for touchbacks, and they rarely don't make the end zone (although they are pretty flat, so hang time probably isn't too good)-BYU student section - something we can inspire to

BAD

- Wharton punt returns - I think it was his second punt return where he called fair catch, and then mis-judged it but caught it low - I was going to post that we needed to take him out of covering punts. a couple punts later he fumbles and almost cost Cal the game. The most important thing for a punt returner is to be 100% reliable on catching the punt. Wharton has never been that. AND, he doesn't use the best judgement when he does so he often goes for the big run back, instead of north to south. I don't recall any of those attempts working to our advantage.

- 3 turnovers

- Cal still seems to let teams back in the game. I liked going for it on 4th as it shows aggressiveness, and was a balanced gamble. I know in years past, we would have tried the FG, but to remind everyone we have a new kicker- Bowers going from starting QB game 1, to what looks like 3rd off the bench in one game (I feel for him, but think he will still play situationally)

UGLY

- We don't play pretty, but we are two-zero, including a road win, but I have to put something in here, so I'd say penalties (although the personal foul on Beck after INT was weak on ref)

Weaver is beasting, for sure, and he's been the most pleasant surprise (with honorable mention to our qbs) so far.

I missed the personal foul near the end of the game. Do others agree that it was a questionable call?

He got the pick, then after he put the ball down he ran and posed. I guess the rules say you can't strike a pose. It wasn't an aggressive pose or an offensive pose, but it was a pose. I think the rule is dumb but by the rule I'm not surprised the flag was thrown.

Where does Garbers performance fit in? Maybe all three: good, bad and ugly?

I didn't know anything about Garbers before the game. I'd say he played well...for a true frosh but there were rough edges still....so right, a little bit of all three. But he was part of a win and that will help him greatly. He will mature and develop. He can be a good college QB.

Where does Garbers performance fit in? Maybe all three: good, bad and ugly?

I didn't know anything about Garbers before the game. I'd say he played well...for a true frosh but there were rough edges still....so right, a little bit of all three. But he was part of a win and that will help him greatly. He will mature and develop. He can be a good college QB.

Seems like we're getting the best end of the refs' calls so far this season. There was that 4th Q personal foul call against BYU, where it was questionable if the defender even made contact. There was the time our defender sort of ran into one of their guys out of bounds and the ref put the flag back into his pocket (rightly so, but it's never stopped them from calling those on us in recent years). Then there was the time (3rd Q?) when we seemed to have committed a foul and then they let us begin another play before they had a chance to call for a review.

Where does Garbers performance fit in? Maybe all three: good, bad and ugly?

I didn't know anything about Garbers before the game. I'd say he played well...for a true frosh but there were rough edges still....so right, a little bit of all three. But he was part of a win and that will help him greatly. He will mature and develop. He can be a good college QB.

I do too. It'll be fun to watch both Garbers and McIlwain develop

Agree, it'll great watching both those guys. I think at this time, they compliment each other really well. I'd like to see more of McIlwain's arm. He showed it yesterday but I get a feeling they won't let him loose. I usually don't like a QB rotation but this could work...at least help keep both from getting beat up more than needed since they both run.

Where does Garbers performance fit in? Maybe all three: good, bad and ugly?

I didn't know anything about Garbers before the game. I'd say he played well...for a true frosh but there were rough edges still....so right, a little bit of all three. But he was part of a win and that will help him greatly. He will mature and develop. He can be a good college QB.

Yeah, given it's his first start at this level, I'd say good. His two TD passes were dimes.

Weaver is beasting, for sure, and he's been the most pleasant surprise (with honorable mention to our qbs) so far.

I missed the personal foul near the end of the game. Do others agree that it was a questionable call?

He got the pick, then after he put the ball down he ran and posed. I guess the rules say you can't strike a pose. It wasn't an aggressive pose or an offensive pose, but it was a pose. I think the rule is dumb but by the rule I'm not surprised the flag was thrown.

Where does Garbers performance fit in? Maybe all three: good, bad and ugly?

I didn't know anything about Garbers before the game. I'd say he played well...for a true frosh but there were rough edges still....so right, a little bit of all three. But he was part of a win and that will help him greatly. He will mature and develop. He can be a good college QB.

Garbers is actually a blueshirt frosh, but I agree - he has potential.

Weaver is beasting, for sure, and he's been the most pleasant surprise (with honorable mention to our qbs) so far.

I missed the personal foul near the end of the game. Do others agree that it was a questionable call?

He got the pick, then after he put the ball down he ran and posed. I guess the rules say you can't strike a pose. It wasn't an aggressive pose or an offensive pose, but it was a pose. I think the rule is dumb but by the rule I'm not surprised the flag was thrown.

Weaver is beasting, for sure, and he's been the most pleasant surprise (with honorable mention to our qbs) so far.

I missed the personal foul near the end of the game. Do others agree that it was a questionable call?

He got the pick, then after he put the ball down he ran and posed. I guess the rules say you can't strike a pose. It wasn't an aggressive pose or an offensive pose, but it was a pose. I think the rule is dumb but by the rule I'm not surprised the flag was thrown.

I have never heard of that rule. Posing is not specifically mentioned in the rulebook but the rule could be interpreted to include his actions: Unsportsmanlike Conduct

One thing though: he struck the pose on the edge of the BYU logo at mid field, reminiscent of the Terrell Owens antics at Texas Stadium.

Agreed. I'm fine playing low risk/low reward on punt returns. But you gotta nail the low risk part

If this team is going to be successful w our style of play, it's imperative we play as turnover free as possible

I agree with everything you said here. I also think the muff was a bad play on Wharton's part. It seems like he sensed the punt was beyond the coverage and that he would have a chance to return it, and this might have tempted him to peek at how close the coverage was, taking his eye off the ball. Then he inexplicably did the Wisconsin gator clap to catch the ball, which I think he will agree was not a good fundamental play. So he muffed it.

But I'm going to defend Wharton a little bit here. Up until the BYU game, he has not muffed any other punts here at Cal that I can recall. He has actually been pretty sure handed back there, and that is the most important thing in a punt returner.

Last year he was also criticized for too many fair catches. But you have to judge every punt return on its own. If the return is not there, I WANT my returner to fair catch. It's like some fans got impatient that he wasn't returning more punts even though the return wasn't there. He simply fielded an inordinate number of "good," non-return-worthy punts.

And that brings me to another point: he fields punts. He doesn't let them bounce around and roll down to the 5 yard line. If he can get there, he goes and fields it on the fly, like a centerfielder, which is what he is supposed to do. This saves us a lot of yards in field position, which is going to be important for a team like ours has been so far this season - good at defense, struggling a bit on offense.

Weaver is beasting, for sure, and he's been the most pleasant surprise (with honorable mention to our qbs) so far.

I missed the personal foul near the end of the game. Do others agree that it was a questionable call?

He got the pick, then after he put the ball down he ran and posed. I guess the rules say you can't strike a pose. It wasn't an aggressive pose or an offensive pose, but it was a pose. I think the rule is dumb but by the rule I'm not surprised the flag was thrown.

Weaver is beasting, for sure, and he's been the most pleasant surprise (with honorable mention to our qbs) so far.

I missed the personal foul near the end of the game. Do others agree that it was a questionable call?

He got the pick, then after he put the ball down he ran and posed. I guess the rules say you can't strike a pose. It wasn't an aggressive pose or an offensive pose, but it was a pose. I think the rule is dumb but by the rule I'm not surprised the flag was thrown.

While I'm enough of an old fart that I don't like much of the theatrics we see in today's game, I don't think this "pose" was all that bad. He had run over toward the Cal sideline (not the BYU sideline) and posed to his teammates, with no BYU player in sight. I'm all for penalizing taunting and have no desire to return to the days of the late 80s/early 90s Miami Hurricanes as shown in the 30 for 30 documentary a few years ago, but this wasn't really taunting. I doubt any BYU player saw it and cared about it.

This is probably Special Teams 101 for everyone but me -- but I've just noticed what's happening at the LOS on punts: sometimes we go for the block; sometimes we go for the return.

I'm guessing that if we go for the block (and don't get it, obviously) Wharton will call for a fair catch regardless of where the ball is or where the tacklers are coming from.

Most teams rarely go for the block. The conservative play is to guard against the fake, block the punt coverage as best you can, and just get the ball back by way of a successful catch of the punt. If you get some yardage on the return - bonus. This is what most teams do the vast majority of the time.

An actual attempt to block a punt is almost always a play called from the sideline, and involves a few rushers creating a hole in the punt protection to allow a designated punt blocker the chance to make the punt block. It is not often called because it is riskier. You open yourself up to a fake or a penalty and your returner loses a few extra blockers. Most teams are happy just to get the ball back in most circumstances and don't want those risks. And yes, I can see the returner calling fair catch on all real punt block attempts - he has fewer blockers.

On our running into the kicker penalty, I would bet that our guy was not supposed to attempt to block the punt but rather to guard against a fake. In other words, I suspect that he disregarded his assignment.

Fuzzy, the different punt defenses I've observed are either (a) the Cal linemen come straight up the middle, and only as far as the punter's protection -- they're not interested in the punter, they're really only there to guard against the fake; or (b) there is a designated rusher coming in from the edge on an angle, in an attempt to block the punt. (He's probably not "going for the block" ... but he'll be there to take advantage of a bobbled snap.)

My assumption is that these calls are made in advance, and Wharton will fair catch on (b). I'll see if I can confirm as the season progresses.